On Wednesday night, as Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, US tech giants began rolling out new security features and advisories for users in the region.
Twitter’s Security Team started sharing tips in Ukrainian about how users in the country can cover their digital footprints to help keep them safe. This included details on deleting their accounts completely. Meanwhile Meta started a one-click tool for people in Ukraine enabling them to block their Facebook accounts and set up a special operations center to track the situation as it unfolds.
“When using Twitter in conflict zones or other high-risk areas, it’s important to be aware of how to control your account and digital information,” the @TwitterSafety account wrote on Wednesday. The tweets, shared in English and Ukrainian, described how users can create stronger passwords, implement two-factor authentication, make their tweets private and turn off location settings, among other things. .
But the advice also revealed how little control users actually have over their information once it’s shared online in the first place. “If you’ve enabled Tweet location in the past and want to disable/remove location information from your previous Tweets, you can. Just know that deleting it on Twitter won’t guarantee it will be removed from third-party apps third party or external research results,” an advisory said.
“Find out if your tweets are public or protected — meaning they’re only visible to your followers — and adjust your settings accordingly. (However, be aware that protecting your tweets won’t remove your old followers.),” read another.
Russia’s attack on Ukraine is far from the only war that can be played out on American technology platforms. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have all made their way through conflicts in Syria, Myanmar and elsewhere. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may be the first that Western countries have paid so much attention to from the start. This puts increased pressure on these companies to get things right, from how they moderate misinformation without distorting historical data to how they protect user information so that people’s digital lives aren’t life-threatening. their current
This story has been updated to include details about Meta’s security measures.
